Together with Microsoft Azure, SQL Server can help you reduce costs, lower RTO and improve your backup and disaster recovery capabilities. SQL Server Backup to Microsoft Azure enables you to configure your backups to be stored in the cloud. The backup files can be compressed and encrypted for fast, secure storage. This enables greater data protection in addition to on-premises backup, or to cost-effectively scale your back-ups to additional applications. You also gain the benefits of Microsoft Azure, with global datacenters which offer geographically redundant storage at a lower cost than maintaining additional hardware.

New in SQL Server 2014, Managed Backup to Microsoft Azure schedules, performs and maintains backups based on the activity of the data, eliminating the need for custom code and manual backups. For older database versions, the standalone SQL Server Backup to Microsoft Azure Tool enables you to take advantage of encrypted and compressed backups to Microsoft Azure across your SQL Server environment.

In addition, you can achieve high availability and faster recovery using active AlwaysOn replicas in the cloud. With SQL Server 2014, you easily create asynchronous replicas using a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine as part of your AlwaysOn solution. You can also use multiple Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines as replicas for backup or reporting purposes.

Also in SQL Server 2014, you can move your database files to Microsoft Azure while keeping your applications on premises for bottomless storage in the cloud and greater availability. The SQL Server Data Files in Microsoft Azure configuration also provides an alternative storage location for your database backup files by allowing you to restore from or to Microsoft Azure Storage.

Lufthansa Systems wants to anticipate customer needs for high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions. It adopted Microsoft SQL Server 2014 and Microsoft Azure in a successful pilot which led to even faster and fuller data recovery and reduced costs.